The two officers were transporting inmates in a bus along Hwy. 16 in Putnam County when prisoners Ricky Dubose and Doonnie Rowe allegedly got through the front gate, shot the guards, and escaped. A massive manhunt was launched as their families began to mourn.

Christopher Monica

Christopher Monica was a family man.

Milledgeville neighbors describe seeing him playing with his two daughters, and later his two grandchildren. He was the kind of neighbor who would help anyone who needed it.

One neighbor, who didn't want to use her name, said she's known Monica for 11 years. "He loved his family and wanted to spend time with them," she said. He was kind, hardworking, a "wonderful person."

The prison guard was described as "so sweet."

Monica had been with the Department of Corrections since 2009.

Curtis Billue

Billue was hired by the DOC in 2007. "They were both tenured officers," Dozier said. "They both had families."

Billue leaves behind a father and brother.

"They are part of our family. The DOC family runs deep. I feel for them. We feel for the officers that work with them on a daily basis. It hit each one of us very hard and we are still struggling with them," Dozier said.

The double murder is the first time a DOC officer was killed in the line of duty in five years. In 2012, a guard at the Telfair State Prison was stabbed by an inmate. Larry Stell died from his injuries.